Just up the road lies unthinkable devastation. Unmeasurable heartache.

Norman, Okla., is but a 15-minute drive from Moore, the town eviscerated by a tornado Monday afternoon, the town embroiled in a monumental cleanup as the death toll rises. And from that uniquely fortunate vantage point -- "Less than 5 miles away from a 2-mile wide tornado" -- Drew Allen and his family were unharmed.

"I am safe and so is my family," Allen wrote in a text message Tuesday morning. "As for the families in Moore, I am unsure. I hope and pray that there are still survivors."

Allen, the former Oklahoma quarterback who will be transferring to Syracuse in time for the 2013 season, graduated from Oklahoma the weekend of May 11-12. He has remained on campus in Norman.

It placed him just outside the destruction, as close to it as possible, and within earshot of the heartbreak.

Prior to the tornado, Allen had said the weeks after graduation would be spent training and working out out to prepare himself for the transition to Syracuse, where he is the frontrunner to win the starting quarterback job. But now his focus has shifted, the events so close to home shifting his immediate responsibilities.

"I will be going to help in any way I can," Allen said.

He repeated multiple times how unreal the situation is, how unfathomable the level of destruction. Preliminary data, according to an article in the New York Times, suggests the tornado was a Category 4 storm on the Enhanced Fujita scale. Precise readings should be available at some point Tuesday.

"My buddy went up there yesterday," Allen said. "All he could say was, 'It was so bad, hard to describe.'